You are browsing the archive for August 2010.
Jim Murdoch’s Living with the Truth. Read what Jim truthfully thinks about his own book. He wouldn’t lie to you!
What do you like to do at four o’clock? Find out what Ed likes! A short story by Stefano Boscutti. Let’s find out what Stefano likes about it…
The first in our Read My Book! segment. Muriel Lede’s opinion on her book, The Sacrament of Conception. What does Muriel think of her own book?
Calling all authors! Tell us why we should read your book, by writing a review of your own book!
I love a success story. With over 4,000 reviews on Amazon.com, over 80 weeks at #1 on the NYT Bestsellers List for Trade Paperback fiction, and well over 1 million copies in print, I’d say The Shack by William Young is indeed successful. Young wrote the book as a Christmas gift for his six children and had no intention of ever publishing it. But after being persuaded by friends who read it, Young worked with several colleagues to polish the work for publication.
One glimpse at the title of Sunni Morris’s book and you probably conjure up visions of Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster living in her old mansion, penned by Charles Dickens back in 1861, wondering around in her old wedding dress and “looking like the witch of the place.”
I’ve always been a cheerleader for investing in copies of your own book for various reasons. This always becomes part of the great debate of how much money an author should invest in their book to make it successful. Remember, if you are a self-published author, you wear many hats: writer, editor, publisher, and marketer. Before considering self-publishing, you should consider how much money you are willing to spend on marketing your project.
I came across David Stone’s book, The Garden of What Was and Was Not, on a random Amazon.com search one day. I was immediately captured by the title and after reading the product description I decided to contact the author to see if he was willing to send a copy for me to review. Mr. Stone gladly agreed and I had a copy of the book in the mail in just a few weeks. I think what caught my curiosity the most was the subtitle: The Autobiography of X. I immediately considered Malcolm X, but the cover of the book doesn’t indicate that this book might be about him, and indeed it’s far from it. The Garden of What Was and Was Not is actually a fictional autobiography of a man named Peter McCarthy, as if he is telling his life story to the author. It begins in the 60s, but don’t think this is a nostalgic walk down memory lane for a baby boomer reminiscing about the Beatles, Vietnam, Elvis, drugs, peace, and all the hippie culture that today’s generation is left only to read about in the back of their history books.
It is nice to be able to celebrate the good news of a friend, and I am very happy to say that we have reason to celebrate. The landscape of publishing is changing, in particular with the advent of the ebook, and self-publishing is increasingly becoming a viable option, and one which is beginning to grow legs as a door opener for other opportunities, as Boyd Morrison proved with his book The Ark, as was discussed in previous post Who Needs a Publisher Anyway?
Check out this article by Isia Jasiewicz from The Books Issue of Newsweek (first posted only July 30th, 2010): Boyd Morrison was finishing a Ph.D. in industrial engineering when he wrote his first novel. Five agents rejected it. Nine years later he tried again, and this time he did get an agent—after nearly three years [...]
C.V. reviews Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley
Shannon reviews The Boston 395 by Jason Derr
Susan reviews Appraisal for Murder by Elaine Orr
C.V. reviews Hellwatch by Larime Taylor (February's 1st review)
Jaime reviews The Parrot's Perch by Karen Keilt
Susan reviews Dark Mind by Jennifer Chase
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